CALIFORNIA PATH PROGRAM INSTITUTE OF TRANSPORTATION STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY An Assessment of Bus Rapid Transit Opportunities in the San Francisco Bay Area Mark A. Miller, Dustin White California PATH Working Paper UCB-ITS-PWP-2004-2 This work was performed as part of the California PATH Program of the University of California, in cooperation with the State of California Business, Transportation, and Housing Agency, Department of Trans- portation; and the United States Department Transportation, Federal Highway Administration. The contents of this report reflect the views of the authors who are responsible for the facts and the accuracy of the data presented herein. The contents do not necessarily reflect the official views or policies of the State of California. This report does not constitute a standard, spec- ification, or regulation. Report for RTA 20829 February 2004 ISSN 1055-1417 CALIFORNIA PARTNERS FOR ADVANCED TRANSIT AND HIGHWAYS Investigation of Bus Transit Routes on State Routes in the San Francisco Bay Area: Selecting Case Study Corridors for Potential Bus Rapid Transit Implementation Mark A. Miller Dustin White February 11, 2004 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work was conducted under sponsorship of the Caltrans Department of Transportation (Caltrans) Division of Research and Innovation (DR&I) (Interagency Agreement #65A0141) and the authors especially acknowledge Dan Lovegren and Lindsee Tanimoto of DR&I for their support of this project. The authors also thank their colleagues at PATH, the Institute of Transportation Studies, and the University of California Transportation Center (U.C. Berkeley) for their support and contributions, namely, Tunde Balvanyos, Elizabeth Deakin, Cristiano Facanha, Manish Shirgaokar, and Wei-Bin Zhang. i ABSTRACT This report documents a continuing assessment of bus rapid transit opportunities in the San Francisco Bay Area. In this study we are focusing on bus transit routes that partially travel on California state routes, whether arterial roadways or freeways. A primary component of this project is to consider the inter-connectivity and regional aspects of bus rapid transit systems deployment in the San Francisco Bay Area region. Considering state routes will help identify more regional opportunities for innovative types of partnerships to help address unmet public transit service needs across jurisdictional boundary lines. We initially identified nearly 200 bus transit routes in the Bay Area that travel on state routes. Next we embarked on a multi-step process to reduce the field of bus routes to a select few with a high likelihood of being upgraded to bus rapid transit systems. We looked at the length of the bus transit routes that travel on state routes, service characteristics related to schedule and route structures based on passenger demand level, external factors, bus routes that function essentially as one service, and level of passenger demand. We selected the following five bus routes for further consideration, the first four of which are already under investigation to be upgraded to bus rapid transit. · AC Transit Routes 72-72M-72R on SR 123 § AC Transit Routes 82-82L along Telegraph Avenue/International Boulevard/14th Street corridor § SamTrans Routes 390/391 on SR 82 (El Camino Real) § Santa Clara VTA Route 22 on SR 82 (El Camino Real) § San Francisco Muni’s route 9X in San Bruno Key Words: Bus rapid transit, state routes, San Francisco Bay Area ii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report documents a continuing assessment of bus rapid transit opportunities in the San Francisco Bay Area. In this study we are focusing on bus transit routes that partially travel on California state routes, whether arterial roadways or freeways. A primary component of this project is to consider the inter-connectivity and regional aspects of bus rapid transit systems deployment in the San Francisco Bay Area region. Considering state routes will help identify more regional opportunities for innovative types of partnerships to help address unmet public transit service needs across jurisdictional boundary lines. We initially identified 188 bus transit routes in the Bay Area that travel on state routes. Next, we performed an analysis of these routes that examined them relative to a set of BRT-related attributes that essentially served as filters that we used to subsequently select a small number of bus transit routes with a high potential for upgrading to BRT status. As part of the analysis, we looked at the length of the bus transit routes that travel on state routes, service characteristics related to schedule and route structures based on passenger demand level, external factors, bus routes that function essentially as one service, and level of passenger demand. Consistent with our project objective of focusing on regional aspects and interconnectivity opportunities of bus rapid transit in the Bay Area, we chose to include only those bus routes that traveled a particular minimum amount on state routes. We were conservative and chose a small value ¾ one mile ¾ so as not to omit too many bus routes based solely on this factor, yet also remain faithful to the regional service character of this project. Of the total number of 188 bus routes under study, 162 of these routes travel along state roadways for more than one mile. Next, we examined the demand characteristics (time and location) of the remaining 162 routes to identify those routes that do and do not support BRT operation; we also identified discontinued routes due to external factors. These characteristics were limited operating hours, such as night service or weekend service only; limited operating hours; low frequency services, such as 1-hour headways with few departures and arrivals; specialized route structures, such as a connection service. Of the 162 bus routes under examination at this stage, 105 of these routes are in revenue service and have demand characteristics supportive of BRT operation. iii In the next stage, we grouped together several bus transit routes to represent one service based on similarities in route structures. In particular, AC Transit operates numerous transbay bus routes between San Francisco and various locations in the East Bay, many of which function essentially as one service. From a BRT perspective, these bus transit routes could function effectively as one service running frequently throughout the day, rather than as separate more limited individual services assuming that the trunk line would be serviced by feeder/collector routes from surrounding neighborhoods. A few bus transit routes were listed by multiple transit agencies, and thus duplicates were also removed during this step to avoid including these routes under multiple agencies. Of the 105 bus routes under examination during this stage, 78 routes represent distinct services. In the next two stages, we explicitly considered ridership as a factor in helping to identify those bus routes with a high likelihood of being upgraded to BRT system status. The enhanced service provided by BRT implementation can potentially have the effect of attracting new riders. However, without an existing demand for transit service, a BRT system is not likely to be successful. To ensure sufficient demand for transit service exists, only bus transit routes with at least a selected minimum threshold average weekday ridership were selected and we considered ridership on currently existing BRT systems in the U.S. as a guide to selecting such a minimum threshold. Again, our intention was to choose a relatively small value so as not to omit too many bus routes based solely on this factor, yet also remain faithful to the fact that without existing demand, a BRT system is not likely to be successful. We initially selected a threshold of 1,000 passengers in terms of average weekday ridership; however, we increased this value to 7,000 passengers based on current data from existing U.S. BRT systems. At this point we were left with the following five bus routes with average weekday ridership greater than 7,000 passengers: § AC Transit Routes 72-72M-72R on SR 123 § AC Transit Routes 82-82L along Telegraph Avenue/International Boulevard/14th Street corridor § SamTrans Routes 390/391 on SR 82 (El Camino Real) § Santa Clara VTA Route 22 on SR 82 (El Camino Real) § San Francisco Muni’s route 9X in San Bruno iv These five bus routes are currently under study, though at different stages of development, to be upgraded to bus rapid transit on these corridors. We also note that the different approach taken in this project to identify bus route corridors on state routes with a high potential to be upgraded to BRT systems has led us to the same corridors that have already been selected by the more traditional and customary approach taken directly by transit agencies. Since the objective of the current project is to identify transit routes that could support a BRT service, at this point in the project we recommend investigating the potential benefits that an upgrade to BRT could bring to these bus routes. At this stage in the project we are soliciting input from Caltrans to assist us in selecting a single bus route corridor from this list of five on which to perform more in-depth analysis. v LIST OF TABLES PAGE TABLE 1 All State Routes in the San Francisco Bay Area by County 5 TABLE 2 Transit Agencies Operating on State Routes 7 TABLE 3 Distribution of Ridership 15 TABLE 4 Characteristics of Top Twenty-Three Bus Routes 17 TABLE 5 Houston and Pittsburgh Busways 20 TABLE 6 Five Top Candidate Corridors for Bus Rapid Transit in the San Francisco Bay Area 21 vi LIST OF FIGURES PAGE FIGURE 1 State Routes in the San Francisco Bay Area 6 FIGURE 2 Bay Area Bus Transit Routes Traveling Along State Routes 8 FIGURE 3 Methodology for Selecting Candidate Bus Rapid Transit Corridors 10 FIGURE 4 Selected Bay Area Bus Transit Routes 16 FIGURE 5 Average Weekday Ridership for Top Twenty-Three Bus Routes 18 vii TABLE OF CONTENTS SECTION PAGE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i ABSTRACT ii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY iii LIST OF TABLES vi LIST OF FIGURES vii 1.